JAMB English Language 2010 Objective — Question 72

Explanation

This has to do with the rule of concord that involves relative pronouns. A relative pronoun is a pronoun that is used to introduce an adjectival clause, which is also known as relative clause. The rule now states that when a relative pronoun is used to introduce an adjectival clause in a sentence, the verb that follows the relative pronoun must agree with the subject that proceeds or comes before the pronoun. While the second verb, which is the main verb will agree with the first subject. For example: one of the women who sell in the premises has been ordered to quit. The subject that comes before the relative pronoun 'who' is 'women', 'women' is plural, therefore it attracts the plural form of the verb 'sell'. The first subject is 'one' and 'one' is singular indefinite pronoun, therefore, it must take the singular subject, which is 'has'. To properly decipher the sentence, remove or mentally eliminate the adjectival clause within the sentence, then you will know the main verb. For example: One of the women who sell at the market had been ordered to quit. We have 'One of the women has been ordered to quit'. Remember, the prepositional phrase 'of the women' do not contain the subject of the verb.